In our Friday Flashack discussion of Roomie’s Record Collection, Townsman k. made mention of a related phenomenon: record collection shack-up overlap that you first address when you and the love of your life decide to cohabitate. In his case, he and his wife’s pre-shacking up record collection only included one overlapping album. I’m curious to know what you and your live-in loves have found overlapping in your single-guy/gal collections—and what, if anything, you consciously did with the overlapping albums (ie, keep or sell, how they would be filed, which one would be selected for play, etc).
I remember my wife and I overlapping most on our Elvis Costello collections. We did not get rid of the redundant albums, but for some reason (“Because you’re so controlling!” my wife might say) her Costello albums got shoved to a “reserve” bin while mine kept in rotation. I also remember one time taping over an old cassette in her collection of an album that I owned on vinyl. She got mad at me because the cassette case of her Van Morrison album was hand decorated by whichever old college friend taped the album for her. Sorry.
Funny. My wife an I overlapped most on Elvis Costello as well. She brought a bunch of early 80s Boston hardcore to the marriage as well, while I brought God only knows what. I’m the one who continued to buy music however, though I do find things I know she’ll like and pick those up.
The only record my wife had that I liked was Zenyatta Mondatta. She’s only got about seven albums and maybe a dozen cd’s that I bought for her over the years. She’s happy with the radio and once asked me when I thought I’d have “enough” music. I actually do try to cull the collection now and then, but it just keeps getting bigger anyway. I think it’s funny when she thinks I’ve heard some song by someone like Lady Gaga, though. I always have to ask where I’d have heard it, and she’ll say, “They play it all the time!” But they never play it on my mp3 player, thankfully.
I know EXACTLY what you mean about popular songs on the radio and not having a clue about them or where people hear them.
I went for years without listening to Top 40 or AM radio, so I missed out on a lot of ’70s, ’80s, and ’90s pop. When I gigged playing keys with a couple dance/pop bands, it caused some odd looks from my bandmates – “How could you *not* have heard ‘I’m Looking For a New Love'”? “Er, it’s easy – I stuck with FM and college radio.” As for pop of the 2000s? Forget it. I don’t have a clue.
Somewhat surprised to see my comment on the Main Stage this morning. Thinking about it a little more, I checked my wife’s CDs and I did have a few classic rock things on vinyl or tape including Zeppelin II, Moondance, American Beauty and Decade.
And my wife will ask about music outside my zone occasionally. She currently asked me to spend some of her Amazon gift card on straight-up mainstream dance music for the ipod. We’re talking Madonna, “Funky Town” and Beyonce. I’ll be able to slip in something like “Land of 1000 Dances” or “Let’s Groove Tonight” but I could use some very mainstream suggestions if you’ve got them.
How about some of the better ’80s synth/dance pop like ABC, New Order, Depeche Mode, Erasure, Kid Creole, Art of Noise, and the like?
It’s by no means contemporary, but at least it used to be: the second Fine Young Cannibals album, with “She Drives Me Crazy” et al, used to be a straight-up mainstream dance album my wife liked that didn’t make me want to drive off the road. (Luckily she rarely goes out of her way for that stuff, but she knows the words to once-hit songs I’ve almost never heard all the way through.)
I had moved from AZ to CA to RI so never brought my vinyl with me (it’s still at my parents’ home). But I had amassed crates worth of tapes which were slogged from one grad school housing place to another. By the time I met Mr. Royale, I had purchased an actual stereo (rather than a portable boom box), was living in an apartment long enough to set it up and started amassing more music but it was things that were more contemporary and I didn’t have on tape. We had minimal overlap due to my cd collection reflecting music primarily from the late 80’s on, whereas his reflected a broader time frame. Of the 10 or so cds that we did overlap on – I’m thinking some Nick Cave, Portishead, Tom Waits, Spiritualized – we ended up bringing them in a bag to a restaurant and giving them to whomever of the waitstaff who wanted or seemed to appreciate them.
Yes!
“Straight-up mainstream dance music” – I guess that would be Beyonce? I think you should do a mix that has some Beyonce and what ever else is mainstream nowadays (I wouldn’t know and isn’t it all rap?) but then throw in your “Land of 1000 Dances” etc, too.
I’m with Tonyola with that 80’s synth pop. You could also plunder the post-punk and Downtown 81 stuff, like Liquid Liquid, Pigbag, etc. And everyone likes to dance to funk!
I recently was asked to make a dance cd for a very precocious 5 year old boy. I was told that he liked Aerosmith and the Beastie Boys. So I made him a mix with almost every kind of music on it that he could shake his tushie to, starting with Run DMC’s “Walk this Way” and Beastie Boys “Sabotage” but then meandering through some funk, some synth, and some post-punk. He loved it (and his parents did too). The didact in me felt good.
As for newer stuff, what about LCD Soundsystem, Daft Punk, and Hercules & Love Affair?
I have Run DMC/Aerosmith and Fatboy Slim on the short list so FYC should work. I played my wife some of my new wave dance stuff, INXS and “Rock Lobster” were OK, Yaz and Depeche Mode were too off-the-wall. I’ll need to check into those current groups.
I’m with you on this. My wife will listen to music on commercial radio stations while in the car so she’ll pull the “What, how can you not have heard that song!” routine on me. I’ve figured out how to stream BBC6 through my phone into my car stereo though, so all is good in the world.
I have to say that there were very few overlaps in my household. My wife had about 40 Cds total and I had just sold my Cd shop and took 300 discs with me, so my collection hit about 1500. (It is down to closer to 1200 now)
Aerosmith – Pump
Cracker – Kerosene Hat
Wallflowers – Bring Down The Horse
Bruce Springsteen – Greatest Hits (not sure why, she is not a fan)
10,000 Maniacs Unplugged (not sure why I had this one)
Beastie Boys – Paul’s Boutique + Ill Communication
B52’s – Cosmic Thing
Elvis Costello – Armed Forces
Sting – Ten Sumner’s Tales
U2 – Joshua Tree, Achtung Baby, Zooropa
Sublime – s/t
Chris Isaac -San Francisco Days + Forever Blue
In her defense, I had plenty of music and she was 18 when we started dating and 21 when we moved in together (as did our music)
Thankfully most of her dance music crap (early 90’s club stuff) was on Cassette (or Cassingles!) so it was left out of the collection.
I don’t think she has bought 5 Cds since our music moved in together (in 2000)
early in our relationship my wife and I had the “enough music” conversation. my wife randomly picked out CDs and asked “when did you last listen to this?” Sadly for me the 1st one she grabbed was the soundtrack to “Crooklyn” and I had never played it, so it took some time to explain that this was a lifestyle and a fairly inexpensive and safe hobby. (and the answer is NEVER enough)
AWESOME! I too own the soundtrack to Crooklyn and don’t ever remember listening to it all the way through. For some reason the music sounded better in the film than on my stereo.
Just back from vacation so a bit late on this. I had somewhere under 1,000 cds and my wife had somewhere over 500. Our tastes are compatible and yet we only overlapped on, I think, 12 cds. Most were Tom Petty albums. There were a few Wilco albums and Anodyne by Uncle Tupelo.